


Horns, Hair, Fins, Feathers

by Senri



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Daemons, Gen, daemon AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-14 13:21:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9183448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Senri/pseuds/Senri
Summary: Armin's daemon settles.  He's not comfortable with it. / Chapter 2: Mikasa and Annie have a fight about Eren and a chat about their daemons.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bathory](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bathory/gifts).



The scouts’ final test was not outlined in any books; in that respect it was not officially sanctioned. Nevertheless, every recruit knew the details. 

It was not a test anyone could study for. No one could cheat, either. The last test was the settling, when daemons decided which forms they would take from them on.

Some older scouts had still-unsettled daemons, though it was rare. Usually, they settled around the same time young recruits chose which branch of the military they’d go into. Traditionally, scouts had birds: wings of liberty living up to the name. Commander Erwin had an immense, dignified golden eagle. She was huge and more than once Armin had seen her turn in the midst of battle to swing her steely talons forward and gash a titan’s eye out. Corporal Levi had a black gyrfalcon - if Erwin’s Desdemona was like a broadsword, Levi’s Kes was like a stiletto.

So, there were two eponymous scouts with bird daemons. If it wasn’t a bird, a small daemon would do - snakes, lizards, insects, even cats could be acceptable, as long as the human could carry them into the air with the tactical gear. Grounded scouts were as good as titan fodder, so if someone settled as a horse, or a larger dog, that was the end of their scouting career. Most scouts in that situation went to the wall guard if they wanted to stay in the military, or to manufacturing if they didn’t. Even if they’d been potential police before, the unicorn guard didn’t give second chances.

Eren had ground his teeth and sweated long into the night talking to his daemon Adala, until Jean cursed and threw pillows at him to make him go to sleep. Armin had worried for him, but he knew what Eren was after. _A bird, Adala,_ Eren had insisted. _Make sure you settle as a bird! Even if it’s not a very big one - any bird would do - do you think you can feel what you’ll settle as yet??_ Adala had swatted or pecked or bitten him as her form required, and when she’d finally settled he’d actually cried with joy.

“Do you know the species?” Eren had asked him, of course.

“No. But she has webbed feet, so she’s some kind of water bird.” Armin indicated the paddling feet with a finger, without quite touching. “Maybe she lives on the sea.”

“Wow,” Eren breathed, with brightness lighting up his green eyes. “Thanks, Armin. The sea! I hope - I hope so. When we get there she can swim. How about that, Adala?”

The memory made Armin smile.

There was no trouble to identifying Mikasa’s gyrfalcon, though the tiercel was white instead of black. “You had to pick the same as Corporal Levi, Sadao?” Mikasa had said, her black eyes burning with disdain. He and Eren had assured her that it was a noble daemon and suited to her, though Sadao had said with equal disdain that there was no _choosing_ involved at all.

The others from 104 were settling too. Armin watched them all, glad for his friends and anxious for himself, stroking Elke with his fingertips. Jean’s daemon Champagne was seen more and more as a fierce little terrier with pricked ears and wiry hair; she’d be small enough to carry in a special harness, and so Jean’s future with the scouts was assured. Krista’s daemon Mamman mostly appeared as a hare, distinct in form and wariness from a domestic rabbit. Sasha’s Harold seemed to be leaning towards the shape of a squirrel. As for Armin’s own daemon…

Elke. For his entire life she’d been a calculating voice in his ear, and stuck to small forms: sparrows, moths even, now and again she’d appeared as a cat. Now she was favoring rat shape.

Armin was working hard to be objective about it.

It was common knowledge that daemons reflected the person attached to them. Elke was a sleek rat with small well-formed ears and muscle under her fur and she changed from that shape less and less. Because she was a part of him, she knew his feelings, though Armin only talked to her about the matter once, under his covers in the barracks when he was sure everyone else was asleep.

“Are you really doing this to me?” he’d whispered. “Don’t you remember after the wall fell? Rats stole food from us. They were _dangerous_ , especially to the children. Rats run and hide in the shadows when they’re scared.”

They both remembered Armin paralyzed with fear, only watching as Eren was snatched away from them, swallowed alive.

But Elke, out of everyone, was never inclined to be sympathetic towards him. She twitched her tail at him - her hairless tail, so close to Harold’s luxurious, furry one, nothing like it at all.

“Go to the library and do some research,” she had said, unmoved. “It’s beneath you to talk like that to me without doing any prep on your own.”

The barracks did have a library, although it was rare that anyone used it. In fact, it hadn’t even been intended to serve as a library in the first place. It was an empty common room crammed with rough-hewn shelves, with just enough room for a couple of wide tables. Mercifully, its windows faced to catch as much sun as possible, but anyone reading would need to carry a covered lamp or risk straining their eyes.

Armin only had to step in the door to realize he wouldn’t be enjoying solitude with his books. Squad Leader Zoe Hange raised her head at the sound of the door, and fixed him with a friendly smile when he just stood there, waffling.

“Don’t mind me. Armin, isn’t it?” He was sure Leader Hange knew his name, but he nodded anyway, taking a step forward to the seat she’d kicked out for him. It was too late to back out noiselessly now. “Sit, sit,” Hange waved a hand at him, smiling. “There’s enough room for two, or three or four more, if we didn’t mind warming the place up and breathing each others’ exhalations. I won’t bother you too much.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Leader Hange. If I had known you were in here…”

“Think nothing of it! It’s important to me, you know, to get to know Eren’s friends. It’s important to me to get to know all the scouts I can. You demonstrated some quick thinking in the aftermath of the Trost attack.”

“It didn’t work,” Armin said. “If you and Corporal Levi hadn’t arrived at just the right time, we would have been executed.”

“Nevertheless, you showed courage.” Leader Hange smiled at him. There certainly was something warm to her, something that put you at ease. And yet, Armin had seen Hange at Erwin’s side, whispering in his ear. He couldn’t quite take the smile at face value no matter how Hange’s eyes crinkled at the corners.

“What are you reading?” Armin asked. It seemed like a safe topic.

Hange sat back at once and waved a hand over her book. “Ah, it’s an account of the flora around this region - well, outside, anyway, in the forest. I fancy myself an amateur botanist, you know. I can’t say I have much of an occasion to use the knowledge, since I’m no wilderness doctor and I’m not brewing teas and tisanes, but you never know what comes in handy! Now, what were you here to read?”

The outpour of chatter had gone on so sonorously and then changed tacks so suddenly that Armin sat for a moment with his mouth open before he was able to respond. “I was looking for a book on daemons,” he said lamely, forgetting to prevaricate. “Do you know if we have any stocked?”

“Ah,” Hange looked at him kindly, eyes still crinkled up though her mouth no longer opened in a smile. “I know everything we have stocked, seeing as I organized this library myself.”

At once she got up, turning to the shelves. Armin realized it was rude to sit while his superior officer searched the books and hastily got to his feet and followed after. But it seemed Hange hadn’t needed his help; she was already pulling down three thick volumes from a corner shelf. “I’m not surprised,” Hange said conversationally as she turned back to the table, and Armin awkwardly walked backwards, realizing he’d gotten up uselessly. And that Hange was still talking. “I recall being quite anxious myself about settling when I was your age! You are at that age, aren’t you? I recall being worried, at the time. I had a friend in the scouts, Mike Zacharius, and he settled as a horse. He’s in the garrison now, they find him useful, but he’s no longer the terror with the tactical gear that he used to be. You can’t carry a horse, you know. But it’s useful to have friends and allies in every branch, you’ll find that soon enough.”

“You keep in touch with him?” Armin said lamely. 

“I write every two weeks!” Hange beamed. “You lose enough friends in this business, you’ll find it’s for the best to hang on to the ones you have, even when they’re far-flung.” Thump, thump, thump, the books dropped in front of him and Hange took her seat again, leaning over the table and clasping her hands under her chin. There was somehow a predatory cast to her posture, a sensation that she might suddenly vault across the table and go for his throat, or just make the conversation uncomfortable, as she hit him with the question: “What’s got you concerned about settling?”

“Not concerned,” Armin lied. “I just… well, Elke has settled, I think, or will be soon, and I wanted to learn more about her form… I’ve never seen your daemon, Leader.”

“His name is Berenger. And he doesn’t turn quite so many heads as Erwin’s or Levi’s birds.” Hange leaned back in her chair and looked at him, seeming very much at ease. “But you can meet him now.”

Hange reached out and put her hand on the table. A lump flowed down from her shoulder, down her sleeve, and then a head peeped out from where the cloak lapped over on her arm and Armin felt a little jump in his heart at the sleek head, the tiny round ears, not quite a rat’s head, but close to it somehow. “Do you mind if I ask his form-? Your form?”

“A polecat,” Berenger said for himself, in a dry voice. The little animal had a tenor pitch and lolloped down from Hange’s arm onto the table, where he sat up on his haunches to regard Armin. He was cute more than anything, with a black bandit mask covering his eyes, and his face otherwise white. He had a long grey-dun body with darker feet and tail tip. Hange moved her hands into her lap and smiled benignly.

“Yes, you’ll find he’s quite talkative when called to be. I’m sure yours is the same - now where is she?”

Armin found Elke suddenly trying to escape his pocket. She scrambled onto the table, tiny round ears cocked forward, and scurried over to give Berenger a very familiar sniffing. Armin found himself blushing at the presumption. He didn’t want to give Hange the wrong idea of his professionalism, and looked up to apologize.

Hange was smiling fondly at him though, and the words died on his tongue.

“I know what you’re thinking, I believe,” Hange said. “I myself felt disappointed when Berenger took this form. It’s not quite magnificent, is it?”

Berenger lifted his head and produced a credible snort in response. “Magnificence is the last thing you should be wishing for from your daemon.”

Hange laughed. Berenger was sniffing all over Elke now, and Elke sniffing him back; they were grooming at each other a bit, even, like cats. They both had miniature dextrous hands and were coming each other’s fur and licking at each other. Armin, watching, felt embarrassed at the implied intimacy and clasped his hands together tightly under the table.

“Polecats are domestic animals,” Hange said. “And in times past, humans used them to hunt rabbits. The practice is not so much in favor now, and they mostly live wild. They’re curious and playful and good hunters, and they get into everything when it’s possible. When I looked into daemonic symbolism behind polecats, what I found was quite flattering! All hunters are keen observers. They’re stealthy and clever. You’ll find that symbology occuring with many small predatory daemons like this. Particular to the ferret they say is a knack for seeing the hidden reasons behind things - along with a taste for vengeance.” Hange shrugged. “That’s not humanity’s best trait, in my opinion, but we do have a predilection for it, don’t you think?”

“I can’t think of too many positive things people say about rats,” Armin said, with a sudden tightness in his throat. “I remember them from… from when we had to flee Shiganshima. Rats ate people’s supplies. You couldn’t leave babies unattended, sometimes they’d get at them. They spread disease-”

“Rats are very human animals,” Hange cut across him gently. Elke hunched down in the middle of the table now and Berenger curled against her as they spoke, in voices too quiet for their humans to hear. “By which I mean, they’re a species that has thriven close to us, living alongside us. People might find rats loathsome, but the truth is we wouldn’t have so many troubles with them if we didn’t make an environment that was comfortable for them. You’ll find people villainizing crows for many of the same reasons. They’re also cunning animals, sociable with their own kind, and have no trouble living close to us or taking advantage of us now and again.”

“What would you say,” Armin said, steadily, “Are the good things about a rat daemon?”

“You’ll have to check the book to find out more - I don’t know off the top of my head. And they do have a bad reputation, you should brace yourself for some poor reactions, I won’t deny it.” Hange cocked her head, so birdlike all of a sudden. “But most rodents have some things in common. Think of a rat as a quick-living creature. New generations are produced quickly, and that increases their survivability. They adapt to new situations very well and make the best of what they get. They can deal with change and they will always survive. And with their ingroup, they’re sociable creatures and capable of getting along well with each other. They’re capable of solving problems when they come up.”

“You don’t make it sound so bad.”

“Because it isn’t. Daemons are neutral. There is no evil daemon. There’s good and bad sides to every animal. Think of a knife - it can be a murder weapon or a tool for food preparation. It depends on you, and which way you turn it.”

Armin sat for a moment, taking it in, and nodded. Hange leaned back and eyed him with an expression of satisfaction. 

“None of that is so bad,” Armin said, when he realized she was waiting on a response.

“Enjoy your research,” Hange said, pushing her chair back. Berenger popped his head up and darted back to climb her sleeve again. “You’ll find there’s a great deal to learn. It’s time for me to be getting to afternoon drills, though. Make sure you don’t lose track of time.”

Armin stood, too, to see her out. “Thank you, captain,” he said at the door. He couldn’t quite look her in the face yet - it was a bit embarrassing to have needed comfort, as if he were still a child. He hadn’t been a child since he’d seen the walls crumble.

“Come chat with me about daemonology anytime,” Hange said. “It’s a pleasure to see a young scout wanting to further his education. You have a good daemon. You’ll find that survivability is key.”


	2. Annie&Mikasa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikasa and Annie have a fight about Eren and a talk about their daemons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently I had more ideas for this AU! I'm declaring it now, this fic might get more updates as ideas come to me. No promises but no negations.
> 
> If Annie and Mikasa seem like bratty kids in this fic, it's because it's set early in their trainee years, and they are.

It was more difficult than Mikasa expected to find a moment where Annie was alone. If the recruits weren’t busy with training, then Eren was bothering her for personalized training, or Mina was whispering and giggling in her ear. Annie Leonhardt hadn’t seemed like a girl who’d always be in company of friends (if you could use that word for her relationship with Eren), but she was hardly ever by herself and generally occupied with someone.

So Mikasa stalked, and waited, and stalked some more. Her moment finally came during the free period after lunch, on an especially sunny day, a lucky break after a week and a half straight of rain and gloom. There was a knoll on the training grounds, near the tall tree-and-platform obstacle course, a grassy knoll that caught the best of the afternoon sun. If Mikasa had been asked to guess, she wouldn’t have put Annie as a sunbather, which just went to show she didn’t know enough about Annie, because there she was, sunbathing, stripped down to her sports bra and training pants, for once without Mina or Eren in sight.

Sadao had counseled her against confronting Annie, and scolded her as she approached, but now he held his silence on her shoulder. He was in the shape of some sleek-swept little bird, not a falcon or a hawk, but a favored form that Armin had identified as a swift. Mikasa could feel the judgment radiating out from his warm, feathery little body. His silence remained grudging even when Mikasa’s shadow fell over Annie and the other girl opened her eyes.

“You’re in our sun,” Annie said, blinking slowly. Her daemon was coiled around her neck. He was in the form of a snake, striped with yellow, black and red. A handsome creature if you liked that kind of thing. Mikasa had never seen him change. Now that she cast him in shadow, he raised his sleek head and flicked his tongue at her.

“I need to talk to you,” Mikasa said, deciding to be blunt. Straight to the point was the best way to do it. “You’re being too rough with Eren. I want you to back off him.”

The blue eyes slowly closed, slowly opened again; Annie hardly twitched. Her expression didn’t even change. “Did he send you to say that to me? If he’s wimping out, he should at least have the balls to come and tell me himself.”

“He didn’t send me,” Mikasa admitted. Beside her, Sadao let out the tiniest, smug little peep - he had told her about five times about how pissed Eren would be if he knew she’d taken it upon herself to intervene. “He pushes himself too hard. He should be concentrating on doing well in our more important training…”

“Now that you mention it, I’m surprised you let him out of your sight to come talk to me.” Annie dropped her head back to the ground, eyes sliding closed again. Even Annie’s daemon dropped his head back down to the hollow of her throat, resting again. “I’m surprised you let him go to the latrine on his own.”

“That’s besides the point,” Mikasa said sharply. “I’m telling you to ease off of Eren, so that’s what you need to do.”

“Hmm… I don’t know. I think if I did that, he’d get in my face, and yell, and throw fits, until it was too unbearable for me and I caved in and started training him hard again.” Annie wiggled a little bit, and folded her arms under her head. “You’re still in my sun.”

“I’m not _leaving_ until you agree.”

“Tell you what,” Annie suggested. “When Eren comes and tells me he wants me to go soft on him, I will. Training him is tiresome.”

“It cuts into your sunbathing time, right?” Mikasa said, unable to stop herself from being snide even though she wanted Annie to cooperate. Her hands itched to drag Annie off the ground and make her take the situation seriously.

“Exactly.” Then Annie yawned, a display of white teeth, pink tongue. It was so intolerably lazy and annoying that Mikasa dug a toe into her side. She knew very well that Eren would never ask Annie to go easy on him, so she needed to show Annie exactly who had the last say in that dynamic without delay.

Annie opened her eyes again, and sat up. She did have a fluid way of moving, one posture braided into the next. Mikasa took one wary step back, just so they wouldn’t be nose to nose when Annie got to her feet.

“All I want is to enjoy a rest in the sunshine,” Annie said. Her tone never quite became plaintive, but it parodied plaintiveness. “You’re coming off an awful lot like the bully here, you know…”

Then she was full on her feet and her snake was drawing up again, tongue tasting the air. Was it yellow stripes touching black that was safe, or red touching black? Armin would know, he was better with that kind of thing. Mikasa knew how to throw a punch or a kick to leave somebody down in the dirt and hurting, or fly with the tactical gear. She tightened her abdominals, raised her arms to protect her face, copying the posture she’d seen Annie adopt enough times. She and Annie had never practiced, but she’d probably seen Annie kicking Eren’s ass enough that she could fake her way through it.

“I’m just watching out for him. He won’t watch out for himself.”

Annie took a step back. Her posture began to mirror Mikasa’s, and then Sadao took to the air all of a sudden, wings pattering and launching his sleek body into a blur.

“Both of you stop! Mikasa, Eren would be furious with you right now!”

“ _Sadao!_ ” That was a terrible loss of face. Mikasa took another step backwards, putting herself at a safe enough distance she’d have time to react to any sudden attacks from Annie, and glared at her daemon without lowering her guard. “Eren doesn’t know what’s good for him.”

Annie didn’t drop her stance, but her laugh rang in the air between them. Mikasa had never worried about controlling her temper, as mostly it didn’t flare, but she found herself stepping forward, shifting her weight on one foot, and driving a side kick towards Annie. Annie blocked with her arm, aimed a front kick in turn, and Mikasa’s conscious thinking and naming of moves and reactions blurred into what she privately thought of as her flow. Each movement was connected to the next like the link of one chain to another, or as she’d seen in Annie’s movements before, like a braid: different things woven into a cohesive piece. Her nerves were screaming. It hurt to attack, and it hurt to block; the entire system wove pain into the braid too. It was unfathomable that she would lose, but when it came to hand-to-hand, Annie was a match for her. 

Maybe more than that. Mikasa became aware that keeping an eye on Eren and Annie during their training sessions was maybe, just maybe, not enough for even someone on her level to best Annie, who definitely was some kind of master of hand-to-hand. At the same time as this thought became clear Sadao burst into the fight.

He’d chosen a shape very familiar to Mikasa, one that loomed almost a meter over her head and one she couldn’t possibly outfight. In the days after her parents’ deaths he’d held her in this form, and in the days after the Wall fell he’d licked away her tears with his pink tongue. Sadao spread his grizzly bear arms wide and tackled Mikasa with enough force to knock the wind out of her. She felt more than the shock of his impact, a touch that hit some bone-deep part of her, that somehow left her with tinnitus, and realized on some level that Annie had hit him before she could recoil - if she’d have recoiled - recoiled from touching Mikasa’s daemon - 

“You will both _stop_ ,” Sadao said, his voice a coughing roar. A bear’s voice. There was no escaping his grip even though she struggled and kicked at him. The bear was pure muscle, immovable. His fur smelled oily and scratched at her face. Mikasa struggled for the principle of the thing and then stopped. Her face was hot. She was both angry and embarrassed. 

Annie was circling around. Rather than hide her face against Sadao, Mikasa glared at her. At least Annie didn’t seem to be gloating too much; she looked curious, instead.

“This shape suits you,” Annie said, after looking Sadao up and down. “A big monster who could smash somebody’s head in. But he’s more sensible than you.”

“A big monster who could squish _your_ daemon under his foot,” Mikasa said furiously.

“I won’t be squishing anyone,” Sadao said, with authority. “Comrades shouldn’t fight like this. And we _are_ comrades.”

Mikasa didn’t know the first thing about Annie, not really. What kind of camaraderie was that? She struggled against Sadao’s hold, stabbing with her elbows back and forth. Sweat trickled down her back. He relented and at least let her feet touch the ground. 

“Mikasa doesn’t think of me as a comrade,” Annie said. She sounded sad, for a given value of parodic sadness. “Here I was, minding my own business, and Eren’s minder came to give me a hard time for going out of my way to teach him…”

“I think you’re a pest, and I mind Eren too, so watch where you’re going with this,” Sadao said. 

“A _snake_ for a daemon,” Mikasa said. It was a pretty low blow, she knew as she said it, though probably Annie would shrug it off. “They say you can’t trust people with reptiles.”

“They say you can’t expect anyone who hasn’t settled to find their ass with both hands.” Annie abruptly collapsed backwards to sprawl on the grass again, as if they’d never had a fight. “But I have faith in you. I think you can find your ass.”

It must have been levity, it was such a ridiculous thing to say, but Annie said it in such a stony deadpan that Mikasa wasn’t sure. She stared. Annie closed her eyes. Sadao’s arms tightened around her, and then abruptly he shifted, and suddenly she was all wrapped around with snake.

A different snake than Annie’s daemon, much bigger, much longer, _heavy_ and tangling her up. It was a clever move on Sadao’s part. She could hardly move under ninety kilos of reptile, or whatever he weighed now. Mikasa staggered back and forth and then sat.

Annie cracked an eye open at the rustle of grass. “They say you can’t trust people with reptiles.”

“Sadao is different,” Mikasa said stonily, though she knew very well the point he was making. “He’s not settled.”

“I’m not settled either,” Annie said. “Chante will change when the time is right.”

Mikasa felt sure that Annie was lying, and equally sure that she’d get nowhere if she demanded Annie tell her the truth. But she was no good at this subtle stuff. Armin would have been able to wrangle the truth out of Annie, maybe, but he would never have confronted her this way in the first place. A sudden wave of self-frustration slapped her. What had she been thinking?

That was probably the realization that Sadao had wanted her to come to in the first place. The thought made Mikasa sour.

“I think you’ll settle as a bird.” Annie was now watching her lazily. “Something like that would suit you. Very noble. Perfect for a heroic scout.”

“It’s not for you to think about what my settling will be,” Mikasa said shortly, as she was trapped and keeping silence up seemed tiresome.

“I can feel your temper all the way over here. I’m impressed.”

“I don’t have a temper.”

“Sure.”

Mikasa felt her eyebrows twitch and into a scowl and tried to smooth the expression out before it was too obvious.

Annie snorted. It was definitely some equivalent of a laugh. 

“He looks poisonous,” Mikasa said abruptly. It was better to talk and do something than sit there, simmering, while Sadao held her.

“Chante’s just striped.”

“There’s a poisonous snake with those colors.”

“You’re thinking of a different kind of snake. He just looks similar. He’s just quiet, like me… and sleepy, so we were out taking in the sun.”

A parody of a harmless girl. Mikasa had no way of knowing what the truth was. Armin would know. She glanced sideways to see that Annie was watching her, and Annie was, with both blue ice-chip eyes open. She had a complexion like a fried egg, white, with a pallor that seemed unreal, and yellow. They watched each other.

“A big daemon would suit you too,” Annie said. “With a bear like that, you could join the military police, and beat up criminals.”

“I’ll follow Eren wherever he goes.”

“If you can.” Somehow, Annie contrived to shrug, though she was lying down. “You don’t choose your daemon.”

“I’ve never seen Chante change his form.”

“He can if he wants. But he’s convenient like this. He’s small and easy to carry… it doesn’t tire me out…”

“If he can change, prove it.”

“I don’t see why I should trouble myself.” 

It could have been true or not true. Mikasa’s guess was that it wasn’t true. She wondered if the shape Annie’s daemon had taken bothered her.

“If I settled as a snake, I would want to be poisonous,” Sadao said abruptly. “Poisonous and lightweight.”

“Prepare to have people overreacting, then.” Mikasa blinked in mild surprise. Annie looked surprised too; obviously she hadn’t expected her own daemon to actually speak.

“I can see why you favor this shape. This animal mostly wants to relax and be left alone,” Sadao said. His tongue flicked against Mikasa’s skin, as if tasting. Somehow it didn’t make her skin crawl.

Annie climbed to her feet abruptly. Her clothes were hanging over a nearby bush, along with her boots, and she went and began to dress - Mikasa had to crane a bit to see all that. “You’re disturbing my beauty sleep,” Annie complained. “All this serious conversation is giving me a headache…”

Mikasa had a moment of realization: Annie had been so discomfited by her daemon speaking to a stranger that she was retreating. Abruptly, she resolved to ask Eren what, if anything, Chante had said to him.

“Don’t run off now, Annie,” Mikasa said. The window of opportunity was open, and she didn’t want it to close. “The conversation was just getting interesting.”

All recruits were practiced at dressing and undressing quickly. There were few moments to spare in their busy days. Annie was dressed within minutes and came back to look Mikasa and Sadao older; Sadao’s form distorted as she did, until he was a nondescript but highly streamlined bird once more.

“The clouds are rolling in.” Annie pointed. Indeed, there was a head of clouds quickly closing the drapes around camp. It was probably going to rain again. “This sunny spot won’t be around much longer… you ruined my nap with your temper, you know.”

“Sorry,” Mikasa said, not even trying to sound remorseful. Annie heaved out an enormous sigh, as if Mikasa was the most burdensome trial she’d ever had to endure in her life.

“If you want me to go easier on Eren, tell _him_ to ask me.”

“I will,” Mikasa said, though what tempted her more at the moment was demanding that Annie teach her hand-to-hand as well. Annie gave her a dead-eyed look before turning and setting off towards the barracks. 

Mikasa stayed where she was, enjoying the cooling air. There was a crispness in it that awakened her skin, like tracing her thumb along a blade without drawing blood. Sadao launched himself into the air and suddenly stood before her again as a bear.

“Strike,” he said, and Mikasa chambered her fist and drove it against him. It was a good hit, meaning that it sent a wave through the muscle tissue it struck, a wave of keening pain that dissipated into the larger mass of the body. It hurt her fist too. Feedback from a hit was always painful, no surprises there. Sadao didn’t move.

“Strike,” he said, and she struck again, feeling the same pain rippling through him, feeding back to her. But it was almost nothing; it meant nothing.

“Strike.” And she hit again, as she had in the early days, when she’d lost her second family, when she and Armin and Eren resorted to picking through trash for their meals, for treasures to sell for pennies. Hannes hadn’t been able to care for them as much as he’d have liked.

“Strike.” And she hit. Annie’s daemon, she thought, must have his shape, and Annie had lied, for whatever reason.

“Strike.” And hit. Was the snake poisonous or not? She’d ask Armin later.

“Strike.” And hit. She was smoothing herself out, a feeling like brushing hair, worry and temper mingling and washing each other out. She was feeling curious. She would talk to Annie again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mikasa's daemon Sadao is taking the form of a swift, as mentioned, specifically the shape of a white-throated needletail. By all accounts they're some of the speediest birds in the world.
> 
> Annie's daemon is a king or a coral snake, it's deliberately left ambiguous and Mikasa doesn't know enough to identify him either way.
> 
> Headcanon: Annie's daemon settled when the wall fell.

**Author's Note:**

> Eren's daemon is a great shearwater.
> 
> This fic was written as a gift for a friend, who requested Hange with a ferret daemon.


End file.
